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AI chip startup Kneron seeks $1 billion funding, aims for Nasdaq listing and expansion in Saudi Arabia’s edge device market in 2025

Taiwanese-American artificial intelligence chip startup Kneron Inc. is in discussion to secure $300 million in its latest funding round. According to sources, the round will value the Taiwanese-American company at around $1 billion. Funds collected will be used for product innovation and expansion, including opening a regional office in Saudi Arabia. According to an investor presentation seen by Bloomberg News, Kneron also plans to have a research and development facility in the country.

Kneron has received its funding in the past from marquee investors like- Qualcomm Ventures, Sequoia Capital China now known as HongShan, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., and billionaire from Hong Kong Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures. As per reports, Kneron hopes this funding to be its last round funding before the startup goes public in 2025. The company will go for Nasdaq listing in 2025 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Spark I Acquisition Corp., sponsored by its investor SparkLabs Group.

Those chips are said to be designed for edge AI applications, power ordinary things like surveillance cameras and electric cars, without a cloud-based system, but with the chips and other hardware built into devices." Kneron's NPU is versatile-it could be deployed in data centres or consumer goods. The chip is made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., currently, and is deployed in Hon Hai Precision's electric vehicles and surveillance cameras under Hanwha Vision Co.

The planned expansion into Saudi Arabia comes at a time when the kingdom is looking to expand its digital economy. Kneron is not alone in targeting Saudi Arabia as the next growth hotbed. US-based SambaNova Systems, Groq, and South Korea's Rebellions have all recently partnered with Saudi firms.

This push comes at a time when interest in AI chips, especially those used on the edge such as on smartphones and drones, is gaining huge attention. Much of investor focus had been on Nvidia, but startups like Kneron are driving this growing market edge AI chips that are anticipated to surpass cloud-based AI size by 2032.

Founded in 2015 by Albert Liu-a former Qualcomm engineer-Kneron is headquartered in San Diego and Taipei. The company is set to seal its future in AI hardware development as it plans to go public soon with Saudi Arabia's National Semiconductor Hub hosting the Investor Day event later this year.